The Puppet Master
by FluorescentAdolescent3
Summary: In which Azula is the master, and Ty Lee is her devoted puppet.


"Ty Lee, what on_ Earth_ are you doing?"

Mai had never been one to pry. In fact, she was so impassive about other people's day-to-day struggles and toils that she had decided a long time ago to never involve herself in such matters. Not that she was afraid to be mixed up in someone's life, it was just that she never found any real motivation to be.

Mai was always concerned about Mai, and that's all there was to it.

But something was off; something was odd about her much younger, very naïve roommate, Ty Lee. Well, for one, the girl was crouched half-naked in the bathtub combing a black gelatin substance through her light chocolate colored ringlets of hair.

The girl with amber colored eyes opened her mouth fishlike when her eyes snapped up and she realized that Mai was hovering in the doorway to the shared bathroom, and her creamy cheeks tinted red with embarrassment.

"Uh-uh, I'm … I'm just … dying my hair."

"At three o'clock in the morning?"

"I forgot to do it earlier." Ty Lee shrugged sheepishly, a meek smile on her lips and quickly ran the comb through her hair, the black gel sticking to her roots and ends, making her look morphed and like there's a breathing alien on her head.

"Okay," Mai stated calmly, pressing her palm down onto the coolness of the bathroom counter, her eyebrows making bridges over her nose. "So would you care to explain why you're dying your hair in the first place?"

Ty Lee's plump bottom lip gets caught in between her teeth, and the young girl's tawny eyes grow to the size of saucers, shimmering and shining as she stares up at Mai. "Azula prefers girls with dark hair."

Mai's reaction was a heated one. Something inside of her chest snapped. She was still upset with the ex-Fire Nation Princess for basically trying to take over the world and destroy all the other nations in her path for ultimate power.

That and calling Mai a 'traitor' when she confessed her love for Azula's brother, Prince Zuko.

Because of her heinous crimes against humanity, Azula was sentenced to three years in The Boiling Rock, a notorious Fire Nation prison known for its harsh conditions. She would have be there longer, had she not been a blood-born princess and all.

Within those three years, Mai had restarted and refreshed, starting with picking up the jagged, broken pieces that had been her life. She moved to Ba Sing Se to start an internship at a tea house. Somewhere along the way she had a serendipitous encounter with Ty Lee and her family's traveling circus.

After much begging and pleading, followed by a plate of homemade Double Chocolate Fudge brownies courtesy of Mai, Ty Lee's parents agreed to let the two girls move in together. Things were going great, Mai had no complaints. Things were finally starting to look up.

Well, until now, at least.

Princess Azula had been completely irrelevant to Mai's new life, so now to know that Ty Lee, who is known for her adolescent decisions, is communicating with the most hated, and risky person in the world is a bit overwhelming.

Pressing her knuckles into her eyes, Mai said as peacefully as she could, "Okay, since when have you been talking to Azula again?"

Ty Lee had now discarded the comb, and is running her fingers through her hair, rubbing it into her roots, staining her fingers black. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."

Mai's eyebrows almost fly off of her forehead; she digs her fingers in the palms of her hands, almost splitting skin from the pressure. She couldn't be calm anymore. "Ty Lee, do you know how dangerous that is? Do you know dangerous_ she_ is? Just because she's spent some time at Boiling Rock doesn't mean she's changed."

"I'm not stupid, Mai." Ty Lee sniffed then, and she rose, ghostlike and beautiful from the bathtub, limbs extending, muscles expanding. It was the acrobat blood in her.

Mai sucks in a sharp breath. Ty Lee has always been on the attractive side, personality wise and in appearance; whenever the two went grocery shopping, all the men in the market would do double takes whenever Ty Lee walked by.

Why wouldn't they? With gorgeous amber colored eyes the size of the moon, russet colored hair that fell down past her waist, pouty lips, a complexion to die for and cute little ears, Ty Lee was one of the prettiest girls Mai had ever seen.

And that only added onto her ever growing list of why she was secretly super self-conscious.

Snapping out of her trance, running a hand through her raven black hair, Mai trotted out of the bathroom and whisked herself into the kitchen, throwing open the fridge, squinting as she searched for the perfect midnight snack. "I just don't think you should be talking to her, Ty. You don't know, she could be plotting to assassinate the both of us."

"Azula wouldn't do that," Ty Lee was suddenly hovering next to Mai, clutching her heart, and Mai practically jumped out of her skin at how unexpectedly the young girl had appeared. "Boiling Rock_ did_ change her, she's better now."

"She's a good actress, too." Mai shrugged then, quickly snatching an apple from where they keep them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator and then shutting the door tightly to the appliance.

Ty Lee's eyes quivered and it look like she was going to cry. "Stop being so mean to her, Mai. People out there hate her. Someone even sent her a note yesterday, threatening to blow up her house."

Something in Mai's chest constricted, and she grit her teeth.

Yes, Azula was the daughter of a dictator whose only goal was destroying the world as they knew it. But, there was a piece of Mai's heart, deep down in there somewhere, which still ached for Azula's safety. The two _had_ been best friends for several years, after all. Mai wasn't that callous.

"Fine," She finally breathed, chewing a piece of the apple, the sweet taste filling her mouth. "But, just be careful, okay? Azula is known for her manipulation. I'd hate to see you become her puppet."

"Don't worry," Ty Lee's lips turned skyward, and the young girl was practically glowing, beaming. "Azula is different now. She's better."

Mai let out a slow sigh, and shook her head gently. Talking about Azula was starting to have internal effects on her, and she yawned, her eyelids heavy. "Whatever. Just be careful. Goodnight."

She made a beeline for her bedroom then, the fluffy warmth of her bed yearning for her, but then she stopped short in the middle of the hall, a sudden thought penetrating her mind. She spun on her heel.

"Ty Lee, you said that Azula prefers girls with dark hair. What do you mean by that?"

Ty Lee's eyes hardened, but her face was stone cold, emotionless. "Don't worry about it. I don't like this color; I'm dying it back, anyway."

That was all Mai needed to hear, and she threw Ty Lee a quick shrug before a yawn bubbled from her mouth and then she was gone, disappeared into her bedroom. Moments later, the faint sound of snoring was ringing throughout the apartment.

Ty Lee still stood in the hall, bewildered, since she was a terrible liar and normally Mai would've seen right through her like Ty Lee had a hole in her chest.

But it didn't matter.

The less Mai knew, the better.

* * *

_Hello, world. It's Ali. _

_Um, yeah, I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I think Azula and Ty Lee are perfect for each other. So, I haven't watched the show in a while, so if any of the facts are off, just let me know, I'll make it more accurate._

_And, I hope you enjoyed. This is going to chaptered. Review. Bye. _


End file.
